Belmont University celebrated the grand opening of the new 90,000 square foot McWhorter Hall at a ribbon cutting event held on campus Saturday. The state-of-the-art academic building houses the Schools of Pharmacy and Physical Therapy, as well as the Department of Psychological Science. McWhorter Hall is being named in honor of Belmont Trustee Emeritus and Chairman of Clayton Associates, Clayton McWhorter, and his brother, the late pharmacist Fred McWhorter. Both men dedicated their careers to the healthcare field, making a difference in the lives of countless individuals and championing healthcare reform. In addition to his longtime relationship with the University and his work on the School of Pharmacy’s initial Study Team and External Advisory Committee, Clayton is also providing a major leadership gift in support of Belmont’s new academic building.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “This building is a model, 21st century academic facility that will provide the perfect space and environment where our students and faculty can intersect in service to help meet the medical needs of our community and our world. We are honored to have the McWhorter name on the building, knowing that it will endow this space with a legacy of compassionate, professional care for others that our students will be equipped to emulate.”

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University hits highest ranking ever; honored for teaching, innovation
At the release of last year’s U.S. News & World Report rankings of America’s Best Colleges, Belmont University President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “Seven is the perfect number—until we reach six!” Today Belmont leapt right over position No. 6 to land at No. 5 in the Best Regional Universities—South category, the University’s highest placement in its history. Since 2003, Belmont has risen 16 spots on the nation’s prestigious rankings chart, from 21st to 5th.
Fisher said, “There are times when even I am speechless. Rising to the Top 5 in U.S. News represents a key element of Belmont’s Vision 2015 plan. To reach this level of prominence already demonstrates the immense dedication and talents of Belmont’s faculty, staff and students in accomplishing what has clearly been an ambitious University goal. One thing’s certain: complacency is not an option. We will continue our efforts to seek positive change and growth at every opportunity.”
Belmont was also honored for the third year in a row by fellow college administrators as a top “Up-and-Comer” for making “the most promising and innovating changes in the areas of academics, faculty, student life, campus or facilities.” Recognizing Belmont’s vision to be a “leader among teaching universities,” Belmont was ranked second in the South category for strong commitment to undergraduate teaching and for learning communities.

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With the official opening of the new health science building next week, the installation of a green roof on 90,000-square-foot facility has recently been completed. The only large extensive green roof on an educational facility in Nashville, the green roof serves several purposes including a reduction in the “heat island effect,” which refers to the trend of generally higher temperatures in urban areas as opposed to more suburban areas. The green roof lowers air temperatures which helps reduce that effect. Green roofs also provide natural habitats for wildlife (birds, insects, etc.) and reduce pollution by holding pollutants rather than washing into groundwater, sewer or drainage systems. In addition, the green roof can retain some rainwater for irrigation and can reduce the heating/cooling costs by providing lower temperatures around air intake systems.

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Starting today, the new Belmont University Health Services and Pharmacy Care Center open their doors in the nearly-completed health sciences building, adjacent to the Inman Center. The collaborative initiative between Belmont’s expanded Health Services Center and the new Pharmacy Care Center will create a unique interdisciplinary approach to servicing the needs of Belmont University while also providing a working classroom for Belmont’s student pharmacists.
In addition to traditional prescription filling and or compounding services, the pharmacy will offer many healthcare items found in retail pharmacies (over-the-counter products, vitamins, first-aid items, etc.). The Pharmacy Care Center will also provide various pharmacist consultation, education and wellness programs such as smoking cessation, diabetic counseling and Medication Therapy Management (MTM).

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A story in today’s Tennessean about future job prospects included several paragraphs about the growth of jobs in the healthcare industry.
From the article. . . .
“Health care also continues to add jobs as the first wave of baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, hits the official retirement age at the end of this year.
Health-care employment, much like IT jobs, requires a degree of specialization. There were 13,760,000 health-care jobs in June, up from 13,134,000 in December 2007.
Employment in medical and diagnostic labs held steady throughout the recession, growing to more than 217,000 jobs through May 2010 from about 213,000 in December 2007.
Employment in hospitals rose in the same period to 4,705,000 jobs from 4,564,000. It’s grown every month but one since the recession began. Hiring in home health-care services grew to 1,066,000 positions in June from 934,000 in December 2007.”
The full article is linked here.

The public is invited to join A Dialogue to Build a Healthier Community, part of the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing Diagnosing Our Future speaker series. Admission is free.
Featuring Dr. David Williams, Professor of Public Health at Harvard University School of Public Health and Staff Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America.
ALSO PARTICIPATING
– Tom Cigarron – Co-founder and Chairman of Healthways, Inc. and Chairman of Alignment Nashville, a public education support organization
– Dr. Stephanie Bailey – CDC Chief, Office of Public Health Practice
– Juan Canedo – Director of Progreso Community Center
– Helen Moore – Director of Non-discrimination Compliance and Health Care Disparities for the Bureau of TennCare, and an Edgehill community member
– Jacky Akbari – Chairperson of the Middle Tennessee Diversity Forum
– Dr. Eleanor Bright Fleming – Edgehill Dental Collaborations and Policy
– Dr. Alisa Haushalter – Director of the Bureau of Population Health Programs for Metro Public Health Department
– Yvonne Joosten – Executive Director of the Office of Community Engagement at Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health
– Winona Yellowhammer – Spokesperson for the Native American Indian Association of Tennessee
– Ann Hatcher – Vice President of Workforce Development Programs at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)
– Belmont University faculty, staff and students
SCHEDULE
8:30am – Registration
8:45am – Welcome
9:00am – Framework for a Healthier Community – David Williams
9:30am – Dialogue I
11:00am – Dialogue II
12:15pm – Lunch break
1:30pm – Dialogue III with guest panelists
3:15pm – Closing Remarks – David Williams
TOPICS INCLUDE
How Our Neighborhood Affects Our Health
Partnering Together for a Healthier Community
A Community Perspective on Disparities Research
Beyond Health Care: Building a Healthier Community
Click here to get more information and RSVP.

Co-sponsored by:
Belmont University’s Center for Community Health & Health Equity
Presentation Partners Include:
Nashville Health Disparity Coalition
Meharry Medical College
Metro Public Health Department

Noted Civil Rights attorney and minister Fred Gray will appear on Belmont’s campus on Wed., Jan. 20 for a special forum and lecture. Gray—the former attorney for Rosa Parks, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study victims—will discuss “Lessons Learned from a Civil Rights Pioneer about Health, Social Justice and Christian Service.” This morning-long event is free and open to the public, courtesy of financial assistance provided by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trusts, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee. Both the forum and the lecture will take place in Belmont’s Massey Performing Arts Center.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “It’s a distinct honor to welcome Fred Gray to Belmont’s campus, especially during the week when our nation celebrates the accomplishments of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement. At Belmont we encourage our students to use their gifts and talents to impact the world. There are few better examples of individuals who have accomplished that mission than Fred Gray.”
The event will begin with an 8:30 a.m. panel discussion featuring Gray along with the following special guests:
• Dr. Henry Foster, Jr., professor emeritus and former dean of the Meharry College School of Medicine and nominee for U.S. Surgeon General under President Bill Clinton
• Dwight Lewis, columnist and member of the editorial board for The Tennessean
• John Seigenthaler, founding editorial director of USA Today, founder of the First Amendment Center and award-winning journalist who briefly left his career in the 1960s to work in the civil rights field.
Following a 20-minute intermission at the conclusion of the panel forum, Gray will return for a keynote lecture at 10 a.m. His presentation will conclude with a question-and-answer session.

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Article from Nashville Medical News
Politics in Play
Tommy Thompson, four-term Governor of Wisconsin and former Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently painted a scenario of political intrigue filled with back room bargaining and deal-making worthy of the latest political best seller. However, he wasn’t speaking of a fictional thriller but of the real life maneuvers that will be necessary to get a healthcare reform bill out of Congress.
Speaking at Belmont University a week before Thanksgiving, he predicted that Congress would pass a new, comprehensive healthcare bill, but not without some Congressional arm twisting, “and a lot of shootouts and deal cutting” before reaching a “cantankerous” compromise.
“The president wants the healthcare bill out. Nancy Pelosi wants it out. Harry Reid wants it out,” he explained, of the push to move quickly. Thompson added that, for Democrats, the specter of “what happened in 1994 with the Clintons’ attempt at healthcare reform hangs over their heads.”
The briefing, part of Belmont University’s continuing speaker series, Diagnosing Our Future, was held at the university’s Gordon E. Inman Center.

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From Erin Lawley of the Nashville Post. . . .
In a lively presentation at Belmont University Monday afternoon, Former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson discussed the potential future of health reform legislation currently before Congress.
Thompson said he expects a bill will be on President Obama’s desk before Christmas. That bill will include a public option, health insurance exchanges, taxes for people who make more than $200,000 per year, taxes on so-called “Cadillac” health plans, and employer credits for wellness and prevention programs.
Click here to read the full article.

Money magazine recently published a list of The 50 Best Jobs in America which bodes well for graduates of the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing. Four of the top 14 jobs were careers for which our students are preparing. The 4th best job in America was a Nurse Practitioner. At #7 was a Physical Therapist. At #13 was a Pharmacist. And at #14 was an Occupational Therapist. With doctoral programs in Physical Therapy, Pharmacy and Occupational Therapy, and master’s programs in Family Nurse Practitioner and Occupational Therapy, Belmont is well positioned to prepare students for some of the best jobs in the 21st century.
In the companion lists to The 50 Best Jobs in America, Physical Therapist was ranked as the 8th best position for job growth with a 27% increase in opportunities expected during the next 10 years for 181,000 total jobs. Physical Therapist was ranked 2nd for low stress with 59.5% of those surveyed saying their job is low stress. Occupational Therapist was ranked 9th for low stress with 50% saying their job is low stress. 97.3% of those nurse practitioners surveyed said their job was secure ranking Nurse Practioner as the 4th best for job security. Physical Therapist also made the job security list at #8 with 96% saying their job is secure. Nurse Practitioner was #7 on the list for future job growth and #6 on the list for job satisfaction. Occupational Therapist came in at #10 for job satisfaction. And finally, Nurse Practioner was ranked as 9th best for those who think their job makes the world a better place.
See more at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/.

Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, will be on campus Monday, November 16, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. for a Healthcare Reform Briefing: How Will Reform Impact Providers, Payors and Individuals? An RSVP is required, but admission is free compliments of Medical Reimbursements of America, who is co-sponsoring this event with Clayton Associates, the Nashville Health Care Council, and the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing. The lecture is part of the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing Diagnosing Our Future Speaker Series.
Look on the Speaker Series webpage for upcoming presentations in the speaker series with Fred Gray on January 20, 2010 and Dr. David Williams on March 25, 2010.

Nearly one year after breaking ground, Belmont University celebrated the “topping out” its new $30 million health sciences building last week, which will serve as the future home for the School of Pharmacy, a Belmont program which welcomed its second class this fall. The building, which has an anticipated completion date of June 2010, will also house the School of Physical Therapy and will include expansion space for the Schools of Nursing and Occupational Therapy as well as the Social Work and Psychology programs. (Click here to view a photo of gallery of the event.)
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “In addition to providing a time to celebrate and thank all the workers behind this immense project, a topping out is also a time to look forward to when this structure is complete. This building will be a model, 21st century academic facility, providing a venue where our students and faculty resources can intersect in service to help meet the medical needs of our community and our world.”

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Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and U.S. Representative Jim Cooper provided the keynote addresses for “Diagnosing Our Future,” the inaugural presentation in Belmont University’s Gordon E. Inman College of Health Science & Nursing Speaker Series. The event was held on October 13 in the Frist Lecture Hall in the Inman Center on Belmont University’s campus.
The theme of the speaker series, “Diagnosing Our Future,” reflects the call to collaboratively advance new ideas to improve healthcare and healthy living for future generations. The purpose of the series is to connect these ideas with the greater community of Nashville and Middle Tennessee and with students in Belmont’s health science programs who are preparing to serve society as physical therapists, pharmacists, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, and social workers.

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R. Clayton McWhorter has been named the recipient of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee’s 16th annual Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award. McWhorter, a businessman and former health-care professional, serves as chairman of the board for PharmMD, and he is on the board of trustees for Belmont University.

Lisa Quigley, Chief of Staff for Congressman Jim Cooper, recently visited the College. Pictured here from left to right are Ms. Quigley; Christopher Coates, President & CEO of American Seniors Foundation; Beth Williams, Simulation Assistant; Jack Williams, Dean of the College; Phil Johnston, Dean of the School of Pharmacy; and Joy Cook, Adjunct Professor of Nursing.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., made a special appearance on campus recently to speak on “Hope Through Healing Hands,” his global health initiative that strives to change the world through raising awareness and taking action against global disease, extreme poverty and other health-related issues.
Frist’s talk focused on his medical mission work in Africa over the past decade and how that work inspired him to found Hope Through Healing Hands, an organization that seeks to use health “as a currency for peace.” He spoke of Lui, Sudan, a village he’s visited frequently that’s located 500 miles west of the Nile.

“What started as American medical volunteers operating on a single patient in an abandoned school house grew to a hospital that now sees 40,000 patients each year from hundreds of miles around with 60 Sudanese workers… People say in Africa there’s no hope, there’s nothing we can do. But we can make a difference.”

Frist advocated that Americans’ work in Africa is not only the morally right thing to do, but it also makes this nation safer. “You don’t go to war with someone who has saved the life of your child.”
Quoting from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frist concluded by reminding his audience of the inextricable connections that exist throughout the worldwide community. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
For more information, visit www.hopethroughhealinghands.org.